1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 11 This handsome vegetable farmer is quite clever

The vegetable garden was pitch black, with only the area illuminated by the flashlight placed on the edge of the frame.

Chen Jiazhi squatted down and picked the vegetables one by one. He soon finished the last batch. After cutting the heads neatly with a knife, he put them into the box.

At this moment, Chen Jiazhi felt a chill on his face, and the raindrops began to fall again, and a little faster.

He quickly inserted the knife into the edge of the vegetable basket, bit the flashlight with his mouth, then bent down and exerted force to carry the vegetable basket on his shoulder.

I was relieved in my heart that I had taken the medicine in the afternoon.

If it is applied in the evening, the rain will wash away the medicine before it forms a protective film.

After returning home, because it was raining, everyone had gone back to their houses, but there were still occasional shouting and cursing.

After taking a shower, Chen Jiazhi lay down on the bed and chatted with Li Xiu for a while. While chatting, he fell asleep.

"Jiazhi must be really tired today. I've never seen him so diligent before."

In the dark room, Chen Jiafang's muttering voice rang out: "Only you, almost forty years old, are still so lazy!"

Yi Dinggan turned over, thinking about the increasingly hot and humid weather, and Chen Jiazhi's abnormal behavior in the past few days. He actually had a premonition that the plum rain might come early.

But I put it down as soon as I turned around. It’s not that I didn’t want to collect the vegetables, it’s just that the vegetables were too small.
After sleeping for three or four hours, Chen Jiazhi woke up automatically. It might be the biological clock formed in his previous life.

There was still a light rain outside.

At this time, vegetable farmers such as Li Mingkun and Guo Mancang who were going to sell vegetables had also gotten up.

They helped each other put the iron vegetable baskets onto the car, and then they went out with plastic bags on their heads and "raincoats" made of fertilizer on their bodies.

There are more vegetables today than yesterday, probably about 300 kilograms, which is almost the loading limit of the bicycle. Chen Jiazhi was very tired when climbing the Luoxi Bridge.

He was the last one to arrive at the market. When he arrived, Li Mingkun and Guo Mancang were already packing vegetables.

As Chen Jiazhi unloaded the truck, he asked, "You've opened so soon. How much do you sell per pound?"

"One yuan per pound." Li Mingkun said happily, "It must be because it's raining. The customers who buy vegetables today are very straightforward."

Chen Jiazhi looked around the vegetable market again and found that there were not as many people selling vegetables as yesterday.

At this time, someone asked about the price, and Chen Jiazhi opened his mouth and said: "The price has increased. The pakchoy and Shanghai green are both 1.1 yuan per catty."

What surprised him was that the man didn't leave immediately and tried to bargain with him. Chen Jiazhi pointed at Li Mingkun and Guo Mancang next to him and said, "They're getting a bargain!"

Li and Guo, who had heard the noise, were stunned. Was he helping them sell vegetables?
The price just went up by one cent yesterday, and it went up by another one cent today. I’m afraid that Xiucai is crazy. In the past, they would even undercut each other’s prices in order to sell out faster!

Now, Xiucai seemed to be afraid that they wouldn't be able to sell out quickly, so he was still helping them attract customers.

The vegetable vendor actually went to see Guo Mancang's bok choy and finally placed an order. Guo Mancang then jokingly asked, "Scholar, what's the deal with you? Why are you raising the price again?"

Chen Jiazhi pointed upwards and said, "If we don't raise prices on rainy days, even God will be offended."

The next half hour went on the same way. When customers came, he would push the dishes to Li and Guo. Without his competition, and since Li and Guo didn't have many dishes, most of them were sold quickly.

Guo Mancang soon realized that something was wrong, and when the customer came again, he raised the price.

Li Mingkun was not a fool. It was just past two o'clock and the vegetables were about to be sold out. The market situation was obviously not right, so he raised the price.

In fact, Chen Jiazhi also relied on his intuition.

He knew that prices had risen rapidly this year, and the price increase of vegetables throughout the year was also exaggerated. At the peak in Huacheng, the wholesale price of leafy vegetables generally exceeded 3 yuan per catty.

It's only 1 yuan now, so there's plenty of room for price increases. The overall market supply is tight. Rain in the evening prevented some local vegetable farmers from selling, further reducing the supply. This presents a great opportunity for price increases.

After Li and Guo raised the price, Chen Jiazhi was able to place an order successfully.

His vegetables are smaller and more tender, and there is a group of retailers who like such vegetables. If the price is the same, there is no reason not to buy his.

The short-haired lady who first called him handsome yesterday came again and started complaining and finding fault after asking about the price.

"Why are the prices going up again? By a dime! You didn't clean up the old leaves properly, so a lot of them were wasted yesterday. Can you give me a discount, pretty boy?"

"Sister, it's not cheap. You can sell this vegetable for at least two yuan per pound when you take it back!"

The short-haired lady suddenly became anxious. "How can I sell it for two yuan a catty? It's a blessing if I can sell it for one and a half yuan. Oh, forget it, just pack it for me, it's still 30 catties."

She asked for 10 more kilograms of Chinese cabbage than yesterday. Chen Jiazhi agreed on the surface but sneered in his heart. Could it be that this lady really sells it at two yuan per kilogram?
What a cruel heart!

It took a few minutes to pack the vegetables and collect the money, a total of 66 yuan. The same weight only cost 60 yuan yesterday. When the short-haired lady left, she changed her tune and said, "Diaomao, remember to deliver the goods!"

Generally, vegetable farmers don’t deliberately refuse to deliver the vegetables. There are only a few wholesale markets nearby, and the vegetable vendors are more familiar with the market than the farmers, so there will always be a chance to meet them again.

At this time, Li and Guo only had a few remaining goods left to sell and were preparing to deliver the goods. Many of them were still the ones they sold for one dollar at the beginning, and they felt bored delivering the goods.

"Oh, I lost money again!"

After the two started delivering goods, Chen Jiazhi's business became better. He never stopped working between three and four in the morning, loading vegetables, weighing them, and collecting money.

At the same time, he also remembers the information of each customer.

In the past life, no one cared about these things. Communication was not convenient at that time, and there were generally no mobile phones. People bought and sold on the spot, and it was difficult to have any contact outside the market.

But Chen Jiazhi knew that these were all resources, especially those engaged in vegetable distribution and procurement at this time, who would be high-quality customers in the next few years.

Moreover, building trust takes time.

At about 4:30, Chen Jiazhi had about one-third of the dishes left. At this time, he saw a familiar face passing by, the slightly plump middle-aged man who placed the order first yesterday.

Chen Jiazhi took out his Aries City cigarettes and called out, "Brother, what dishes should we serve today?"

At the same time, he also made the gesture of handing over a cigarette.

Seeing this, a slightly plump middle-aged man walked over, took the cigarette, and shone the flashlight on the vegetable basket.

"I just bought bok choy and bok choy yesterday. No matter how good the vegetables are, you can't eat them every day. I'll get scolded by the workers later."

As soon as he heard this, he understood that this person was a factory buyer, or a vegetable vendor who specialized in distribution, a stable big customer.

Chen Jiazhi quickly took out a match and tried to light his cigarette, but it was raining and the match didn't work, so in the end the man had to light his cigarette, which was embarrassing.

Chen Jiazhi: "It's raining today, so it's a little hard to buy this vegetable. It won't hurt to eat the bok choy for a day longer. I'm just a worker, so why should I be so picky?"

"It's just hard to buy, and delivery is hard to do. They're either too expensive or the dishes are always the same."

"That's right. Most people don't have the ability to do delivery work."

The middle-aged man smoked a cigarette and looked at him again. Just then the rain got heavier. "I see you're smart. Pack all the dishes for me and send them to the back..."

Chen Jiazhi spoke first, "It's a Haishi Jinbei car, license plate number 95976, right, boss?"

The man looked at him in surprise. If he remembered correctly, he had just bought vegetables from him yesterday. This handsome vegetable farmer was quite smart.

(End of this chapter)